


Fringe Benefits

by kay_obsessive



Category: Dollhouse
Genre: F/M, Porn Battle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-28
Updated: 2010-01-28
Packaged: 2017-10-06 18:22:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/56488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kay_obsessive/pseuds/kay_obsessive
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time Topher's birthday rolls around is the first time he makes a really big mistake on the job. Not quite of the 'running, screaming, dying' variety (there'll be plenty of time for that later) but definitely of the 'you are soooo fired' sort at the very least.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fringe Benefits

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: birthday

The first time Topher's birthday rolls around is the first time he makes a really big mistake on the job. Not quite of the 'running, screaming, dying' variety (there'll be plenty of time for that later) but definitely of the 'you are soooo fired' sort at the very least.

This is back when Caroline Farrell isn't even really on their radar, Alpha is still a perfectly normal Doll with a few mildly unsettling quirks, and Whiskey is still Number One and scar-free. (It's a stroke of luck, really, that his birthday lands on one of her few idle days. He's wanted a chance to really see what makes her their most requested Active, beyond the obvious fact that she's a beauty.)

This little gift to himself is an exciting prospect and would be even if he didn't get the perfect playdate out of it. It's a chance to really test his imprint-building skills, making them to his own specifications instead of those sent down from on high. Sure, he can make them fall in love, know how to kill a man seven ways with a spoon, and have a taste for classical opera, but can they beat him at chess in under six moves or discuss the intricacies of Star Trek's 40-year franchise history without technically having seen any of the episodes? He, for one, is about to find out.

(And maybe he gets a little too carried away with the possibilities and neglects some basic protocols and safeguards, but he'll swear up and down to anyone who'll listen that he couldn't possibly have foreseen the consequences and certainly didn't plan for any of it.)

Anyway, it starts out perfectly fine, wonderfully even. Whiskey hops out of the chair with a big smile and grabs his hand, near bouncing with energy, and demands to know whether or not he's ordered pizza yet, because she is _starving_. Topher can't do anything to keep the stupid grin off his face.

And yeah, there were a couple warning signs he maybe dismissed a little too easily. The imprint was a bit more…affectionate than he'd intended. Very tactile. (In his defense, it's not the sort of thing that seems like a problem at first. So what if she keeps clinging to his hand after they leave the imprint room, and she leans over his shoulder at his computer and runs her fingers up and down his arm, and she chooses to sprawl across his lap in melodramatic despair when he beats her at a video game? That's not a glitch, it's enthusiasm. It's a good thing, adds to the realism of their business.)

It's somewhere between House Rules Laser Tag suddenly gaining a surprisingly physical element and Whiskey's cute little grin becoming less cute and more wicked and mischievous that Topher begins to realize that there could possibly be a problem here. (When she kisses him, hard and sudden enough to make him crack his skull on the nice wood flooring, he knows there is.)

She unbuckles his laser tag vest and tosses it aside, and then she sets to work on the rest of his clothing, and it all just gets worse from there (or better, a lot, lot better, but he'll never tell it that way).

And for all that he plays God, he's just a man, and he can only hold on for dear life while she smirks (not even remotely cute anymore, no sir) and teases every reaction that she can from him. And he's a terrible, terrible human being who is lucky beyond all belief that the Dollhouse is so empty today.

Later, once they're dressed again and his heart stops pounding and she's not giggling in his ear anymore, he offers her a treatment and sends the wiped Whiskey back out on the floor. He spends the night tweaking the imprint, building in some distance and a greater respect for personal space, and wondering how long he's got until he's fired.

(He gets away with it, miracle of miracles, and is never found out. But he can't shake the feeling this'll all come back to haunt him someday.)


End file.
